Doe Eyes
by Air Force Muffin
Summary: Ahsoka Tano couldn't stop her daemon from changing to represent her inner self. Which was what made it even more embarrassing when she set her eyes on Barriss Offee for the first time. Story written for mylordshesacactus's Star Wars daemon AU based off Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials series.


**A/N: This is a daemon AU, based off of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials series, in which everyone has a physical extension of their soul that manifests themselves as an animal. If you want to know more about it, here's a link: wiki/Dæmon_(His_Dark_Materials)  
** **This work was inspired by mylordshesacactus's excellent Star Wars daemons au, where she decided that Barriss Offee has a doe as her daemon, and that when Ahsoka saw Barriss for the first time, her daemon immediately turned into a stag, because "she is literally that gay" (mylordshesacactus).  
** **Huge thanks and credit to mylordshesacactus for inspiring this story, being a helpful consultant, and being a brilliant beta-er. Check out her stories if you liked this.  
** **Warning: Mentions of being buried alive  
** **Anyway, enjoy, and please leave a review!**

To this day, it was still one of the most embarrassing moments in Ahsoka's life. Anakin had never let her hear the end of it. But really, was it her fault that her daemon had decided, immediately, abruptly, without warning, ALL ON HIS OWN, to go and do that?

Well, maybe not _all_ on his own. She wouldn't deny that, yes, her reaction had had plenty to do with it.

But, _still_. Could the physical extension of her soul at least been a _little_ more subtle?

* * *

"-Listen to me-" Anakin said in a futile attempt to calm her.

Ahsoka rolled her eyes. She was far from impressed with Anakin's attempt to justify barging in on her briefing sessions. She was even more annoyed by the fact that he didn't trust her in the crucial situation that they faced on Geonosis, which was supposed to be a proving ground for her.

Luka, her daemon, helped to express Ahsoka's annoyance by taking the form of a border terrier and barking incessantly at Ashla, Anakin's amber-furred, short-haired pariah-dog daemon. Ashla just sighed and tried to ignore him, pushing him away anytime he got too close with his barking, but otherwise enduring in silence.

"Well, if you don't trust me, then maybe you should send me back," Ahsoka snapped. Luka gave an extra-loud bark in assent.

Anakin sighed and exchanged a long-suffering look with Ashla before replying. "Oh, don't tempt me, Snips!" he said.

It was at this critical juncture when Ahsoka heard a familiar voice.

"…If you're both finished with your little discussion, we do have a factory to destroy," Master Luminara Unduli said dryly, approaching them.

Ahsoka smiled and turned slightly to face the illustrious master, while keeping Anakin in her line of sight—she didn't want him to think that this argument was over yet.

If she'd been less preoccupied with reminding him that she was right, maybe she'd have noticed that Luminara wasn't alone, and the whole incident wouldn't have happened in the first place.

Master Unduli's daemon, a black cat named Lorin, was draped around her shoulders as she came up to them. Lorin flicked his ears at Ahsoka, acknowledging her presence, and Luka barked in recognition. They'd met Master Unduli and Lorin before, back when they'd interrogated Gunray on the _Tranquility_.

After a pause, Master Unduli glanced to her left. "Well, Barriss, aren't you going to introduce yourself?" she asked.

Ahsoka still didn't take her eye off Anakin despite the new development—she wanted to win this argument, kriff it. But Master Unduli's padawan was here, too? That was interesting. Ahsoka hadn't had the pleasure of meeting Barriss Offee yet, but surely—

"Padawan Learner Barriss Offee at your service," a soft voice said, and Ahsoka finally turned away from Anakin to look at Barriss Offee, because anyone with a voice like _that_ had to be worth losing an argument for.

She was a slender Mirialan, maybe a little older than her, wearing a set of dark robes with a patterned mantle that covered her head. A small pattern of diamond tattoos ran across her face, perfectly framing her deep blue eyes. A petite doe—her daemon—hugged close to her side, gazing up at Ahsoka as the Mirialan padawan bowed respectfully, lowering her head.

The first thought that ran through Ahsoka's head was _Oh_.

Her next thought was _Uh_.

As she scrambled for a coherent greeting, she heard something strange from Anakin—an odd sort of choked sound. Ignoring it, she managed to put together a string of words. "Glad to meet you. I'm Ahsoka," she rushed out, holding out a hand to Barriss. Then she had to resist the urge to smack herself.

 _Nice job, Ahsoka. You don't shake someone's hand when they're bowing to you. You're supposed to bow back._

Thankfully, Barriss made no notice of the mistake and took Ahsoka's hand as gracefully as if that was what she had expected, and stood up. Then, still holding hands, there was a moment where they didn't say anything as they smiled at each other, and Ahsoka's heart decided to start accelerating like an out-of-control podracer as she unwittingly took note of every detail on Barriss's face, from her flawless green skin to her artfully styled eyebrows to the elegant point of her chin to the uniformity of the nineteen diamond tattoos on her face— _Oh, boy._

Anakin was still sounding like a crow choking on a bone, and she glanced over at him in irritation. "Master, _what_ are you-"

And then she realized that Anakin, Ashla sitting at his feet with her tongue hanging out in a wide doggy grin, was trying to hold in laughter. He was looking at something just past Ahsoka. But the only thing there would be—

She looked down. Luka.

Who was no longer a border terrier barking at Ashla. He was a red deer. Specifically, a red deer stag.

A _stag._

Ahsoka wouldn't have minded very much if the entire planet disintegrated at that moment.

Luka wasn't even a very _good_ stag—he was a scraggly, spindly-legged little thing whose body looked too small for its legs. His one standout trait was an admittedly decent set of three-point antlers. Unfortunately, this was ruined by the antlers somehow managing to be in _half-velvet_ , and where the velvet had been scratched off, there were still bloodstains. Great. He wasn't just a young stag, he was a stag on the edge of the _autumn rut_.

And on top of all this, Luka had the _audacity_ to prance up to Barriss's daemon at that moment and toss his head around and make a grand carrying on, as if he was trying to _court_ the doe. Even worse, the doe looked like she was actually _going along with it_. She was watching Luka's display with an expression of amusement, while making no attempt to stop him. This was too much.

"Nice to meet you," Luka told her, flicking his antlers one last time before touching noses politely with the doe.

She lowered long lashes before looking up at him with barely-contained laughter. "Pleasure's all mine."

"Um," Ahsoka said uncertainly.

Meanwhile, Anakin was now visibly shaking with the effort of holding in his laughter. Luminara just looked startled, with the slightest bit of consternation mixed in to her expression. Ahsoka was contemplating jumping into the nearest handy ravine when Barriss laughed nervously, a sound that (kriff) sent a tiny thrill through her.

She blushed (Ahsoka hadn't ever seen a Mirialan blush before- apparently, it made their cheeks turn an odd sort of grayish-dark green color), looking just as embarrassed as she probably did. Ahsoka relaxed a little. At least they shared their mortification, even if that didn't change the fact that they'd known each other for all of forty seconds and the physical extensions of their souls were already flirting.

Lorin was refusing to look at anyone as he groomed his paws. Luminara coughed delicately.

"Shall we discuss the mission?" she offered.

* * *

Wonderful. Just wonderful. The four of them—Ahsoka, Barriss, and their daemons—were trapped in the tank deep in the rubble of the ruined droid foundry. Things weren't looking good. It was extremely hard to move around—Luka had at least made room by turning into a guinea pig, but Barriss's daemon was still a deer, and she was taking up so much room that Ahsoka had to press her back against the wall just to avoid touching the doe. And Barriss had to draw her legs in as close as she could to avoid touching Luka, even when he was as small as he was. Their current arrangement was so that Barriss's daemon was curled up next to her, and Luka was in Ahsoka's lap. It was the best possible way to be sitting, but if either of them moved too suddenly, they would probably touch the other's daemon, and that would be bad for everyone involved. So, it was a _little_ uncomfortable, especially with Ahsoka being in such close quarters with her massive crush. But that all could be easily ignored, because there was something much more important to be dealt with at that moment—Getting out.

Ahsoka tapped her comm. It stayed silent, not even lighting up.

"Great," she said. "My comm's dead. What about yours?"

"Broken," Barriss said, a note of worry creeping into her voice. "We've got no way of contacting our Masters."

"Hang on," Ahsoka said. All droids ran on power cells. If this tank had a few of them… "I'm going to turn on my lightsaber," she said, reaching for her belt.

"Good idea," said Barriss. The green and blue glows of their blades illuminated the small space around them, casting Barriss's face in a ghostly light.

"How deep do you think we're buried?" Barriss asked.

"Probably best not to think about it," Ahsoka said, looking around the cockpit, as Luka nuzzled her hand in a gesture of comfort. Then she saw a rack of silver cylinders next to Barriss—power cells. Perfect.

"Hand me that power cell, would you?" Ahsoka asked, pointing to the rack as she picked Luka up and put him next to her (making sure that he was as far away from Barriss as possible) to clear her lap.

She slipped her comm off her wrist as Barriss reached behind her daemon, picked out a power cell, and passed it to her. "Thanks. Mind holding the light?" She held out her lightsaber, being careful to make sure she didn't brush against the doe.

Barriss took the lightsaber, and Ahsoka went to work with her comlink, removing the dead battery from her comm and pulling out the wires connected to the battery.

"Whatever you're doing, I hope it works," Barriss said. "Because I'd sure rather have died fighting up there than starve to death down here."

"Don't worry. We'll run out of air long before we starve," Ahsoka said wryly.

"How cheerful," Luka said, his voice sounding much squeakier in his guinea pig form.

Barriss sighed. "That's a comforting thought. Thanks." Luka gave an approving grumble.

"Master Skywalker has taught me a trick or two," Ahsoka said. _Like how to get a dead comm working with anything you've got lying around._ She stripped away the insulation around the wires, exposing the bare metal. "I think I can get my comm working."

Barriss sighed. "Still, at least what happens to us now doesn't matter. By destroying this factory, we've saved countless lives elsewhere."

"That's no way to think," Barriss's doe huffed.

"Well, I'm about to save two more," Ahsoka added, holding up the power cell. She brought the output plug to the exposed wires of her comm, and sparks flew as they connected. Her comm lit up and began transmitting.

"Master, I know you're up there, and I know you're looking for me," she murmured, keeping the power cell pressed to the wires.

After a few more seconds, the comlink let out a _pop_ and went dark again.

She lowered the power cell. The comm was definitely dead now, and all they could do was hope that she'd gotten through to Anakin.

A silence fell, and it was broken when Barriss spoke a few minutes later. "What's his name?" she asked, nodding to Ahsoka's daemon. It was a fair question. There hadn't exactly been much time for introductions earlier.

"Luka," Ahsoka said. "What about yours?"

"Her name's Fidima," Barriss said. "It's the name of the starliner that I was born on."

"That's a beautiful name," Ahsoka said. Something else struck her. "She's female?" she said wonderingly. A daemon with the same sex as its person was pretty rare.

Barriss looked down self-consciously and started to stroke Fidima's neck. "Yes... I don't know why, though. I suppose that's just the way she is."

"Oh." Ahsoka nodded. "That's cool. Is she usually a doe?"

"She settled a year ago." Barriss said. She paused, and then she asked something that threw Ahsoka. "Is Luka usually a stag?"

Ahsoka silently begged the Force to make the air run out at that moment so that she could die. Unfortunately, it seemed that the Force liked drama, and she remained alive.

"…No," she said finally, deciding to tell the truth. "He changes all the time, but he's never been a stag before."

"Oh," Barriss said. She tried to seem unaffected, but Ahsoka could see another blush rising in her cheeks.

"Barriss," she said suddenly.

Barriss looked up.

"I'm- I'm sorry for making you feel uncomfortable- because Luka turned into a stag-"

"I regret nothing!" Luka interjected.

Ahsoka stopped and sent him a hard glare before turning back to Barriss. "Uh- you get my point? I didn't mean to-"

Barriss smiled and held up a hand, stopping her.

"There's no need to worry about it."

Ahsoka's heart shifted into hyperdrive again.

"It's not like they're doing anything wrong," Barriss said, running a hand across Fidima's neck. "I don't mind."

 _But what if WE do something wrong?!_ Ahsoka screamed in her mind. Out loud, she only said, "…Yeah."

Then she yawned. To her alarm, she realized that she had started to feel drowsy. That could only mean one thing.

"Barriss…" Ahsoka said. "I think we're running out of air."

Barriss nodded, suddenly looking frightened. "I thought I was just feeling tired, but…"

"Let's hope our masters can find us in time."

Barriss turned off her lightsaber, leaving Ahsoka's as the only light, and then she extended a tentative hand. Ahsoka took it, and a shiver went through her. Barriss's hand felt warm… It was kind of nice. Luka's fur under one hand, and Barriss holding the other— she wanted to be in that position more often.

They sat quietly, waiting for rescue or the end, whichever came first. Ahsoka still felt alert enough, but there was a definite fatigue tugging at her. It would only get worse and worse as time went on, until she succumbed to unconsciousness, and then-

No. Anakin would find her. She was sure of that.

Suddenly, she heard a thud.

Barriss raised her head. "Did you hear that?" she asked.

"Yes," Ahsoka said, listening. There was another thud. And then a creak, followed by a series of odd groans, and screeching metal.

"Someone's digging!" she said.

And then, a streak of light sliced through the darkness- _daylight_ \- and a gust of fresh air rushed into the tank. Ahsoka took a deep breath, and she felt her tiredness slipping away as oxygen found its way into her lungs. At her side, Luka lept to his feet, transforming into a gangly scenthound, and let out an earsplitting bay.

"We're saved," Barriss whispered.

Ahsoka stood up carefully, pushed a piece of metal out of the way, and crawled into the daylight with Barriss following.

She stood up, blinking at the bright sunlight. They were in a massive pit, surrounded on all sides by debris and wreckage. Above them, a group of clones stood at the pit's edge. Ahsoka squinted at them, and picked out three figures in the front. Anakin, Master Unduli, and Ashla already trying to pick her way down the pile of rubble to greet them. They had found them after all.

As the clones descended into the pit to help them, Fidima emerged from the tank, trying to stay as close to Barriss as possible without brushing up against Ahsoka. Seeing her sidestep made Ahsoka realize that she was still holding Barriss's hand. She let go quickly, and she couldn't help but glance at Barriss to read her expression.

Thankfully, Barriss didn't seem concerned, and she actually gave Ahsoka a small smile that made her heart jump _again_ , and she couldn't help but think that today had been the start of something great.

* * *

Ahsoka smiled as Barriss snuggled in closer to her side with a happy sigh. It was their first time together after months of being sent off on separate missions, and the two of them had taken advantage of a few hours of free time to curl up on a couch in Ahsoka's quarters. She was trying to read the Republic HoloFeed, but the feeling of Barriss's warm body against her was making it hard to concentrate on anything except the Mirialan half-dozing in the sunlight next to her. Luka and Fidima were curled up around each other, fast asleep. Luka was currently in his stag form for the first time in a couple of months, and coincidentally, the first time since they last saw Barriss. Ahsoka and Barriss had managed to get over the embarrassment of Luka's penchant for turning into a stag whenever they met, and now, even if it raised a few eyebrows among some Jedi, it was no trouble for them. At least he was less of a ragged disaster now, even if he was still a bit unimpressive as bucks went.

One reference to an ongoing occupation effort on her datapad caught Ahsoka's eyes.

"Hey," Ahsoka said, rousing Barriss from her half-slumber. "Remember Geonosis?"

Barriss propped herself up on Ahsoka's arm, looking up at her with a sleepy smile. "Yes. It was quite unforgettable. I think I remember it better than you."

"Yeah… We could barely look at each other for a while there, after… y'know." She jerked her head at stag and doe on the floor.

"We've come a long way," Barriss said. She looked back at their daemons. "It must have been staggering for you," she continued. "Seeing me for the first time, and suddenly- What?"

Ahsoka waved her off, wheezing too hard with laughter to say anything.

" _What?_ " Barriss repeated. "Did I say something wrong?"

"Oh, Force, Barriss…" Ahsoka finally caught her breath. "You didn't do that on purpose?"

Barriss blinked uncertainly at her.

"Staggering?" Ahsoka repeated.

Still no reaction from Barriss.

" _Stag_ -gering? Stag? Luka?"

"Oh." Barriss nodded. "I see. I didn't catch that."

"Only you would miss that," Ahsoka said, shaking her head. "You're right though. I was pretty… em _barriss_ ed," she added, stressing the middle two syllables of the adjective and looking expectantly at Barriss.

The joke went sailing by her.

"Yes," Barriss said, showing no recognition. "I was, too." She closed her eyes again and leaned her head against Ahsoka's shoulder.

Ahsoka shouldn't have expected anything else. What made Barriss brilliant in some areas, like rote memorization and perfect execution of any order given to her, also caused her to take things too seriously or literally. But it only made her more endearing.

"You know I love you, right?" she asked.

Barriss made a drowsy sound of affirmation.

"You could even say I love you _deer_ ly," Ahsoka said.

Like before, there was no reaction from Barriss. Ahsoka sighed in defeat. Then she looked down, and realized that Barriss was nearly asleep. She must have been more tired than she let on.

"Rude," Luka mumbled from beside the bed.

And then Barriss stirred slightly and murmured, "…love you too." Then, after a pause, "...Deer pun," and now she was really asleep, as her breathing evened out, and Ahsoka's montrals could feel Barriss's heartbeat slowing.

"'Deer pun?' Really?" Ahsoka asked to the sleeping Mirialan. Of course, Barriss didn't reply, but, woken by the noises, Fidima gave an amused snort, and Luka grunted in assent.

"Sorry, you _doe_ n't get to have the last word with _that_ ," Ahsoka said with a smirk. She looked around indecisively for a few seconds before steeling herself and planting a gentle kiss on the top of Barriss's head. Luka, who'd raised his head at her moment of indecision, flicked his tail approvingly and lay back down. Satisfied, she leaned back, closing her eyes. She didn't notice the peaceful smile that settled over Barriss's features.

* * *

Nothing made any sense. Ventress, for some reason, had come back to fight her. Why? She didn't think that Ventress, after making a deal, would turn around and betray her like that; but here she was, fighting someone who was strong with the Force, was wearing Ventress's helmet and clothes, and who fought with Ventress's lightsabers. But something felt _off_.

Her attacker, whoever it was, fell on her with blinding speed, catching Ahsoka completely by surprise.

Luka had never been more vital to her than at that moment when he sprang forward in the form of a tiger with a tremendous roar. Although the contact taboo kept him from physically touching the attacker, his appearance provided a half-second distraction for the attacker, and in that timeframe, Ahsoka ignited her lightsaber, shifted into a defensive position, and caught her breath, all of which vastly improved her odds of survival. Unfortunately, the attacker dealt with Luka by throwing him into the wall with a powerful twist of the Force. He hit the wall with a heavy _thump_ and laid there, dazed.

And that was when Ahsoka realized what was wrong. Ventress's daemon was missing. Ventress _always_ had Sivivan at her side, and especially so in a fight, where the black hawk would be swooping in to fight his opponent's daemon. Right now, Sivivan should have been trying to claw Luka's eyeballs out. But this person was fighting completely alone, with no daemon in sight. This couldn't be Ventress.

The assailant turned back to Ahsoka and attacked with breathtaking intensity. Ahsoka struggled to hold her ground, trying to adjust to fighting with only one blade. She was at a severe disadvantage here, and if she didn't find an escape route soon, she would be at the attacker's mercy. She wasn't sure if she could win even if she had had her shoto. Her opponent seemed to have only one singular goal- _kill her at all costs_.

She parried a blow and backed up. Worryingly, she was being pushed away from Luka, who had yet to regain his footing. If they got too far apart, then the pain from the separation would be too much to bear. The attacker pushed her back again through a doorway, and now Ahsoka was definitely at the limits of her separation with Luka. A sharp pain was already lancing through her torso. She glanced around for an exit, but the attacker had pressed her into a windowless room with only the one door through which they'd come. Crates surrounded her on all sides.

It would be a defensive game, then. Draw her in and hold the line long enough to circle around, and then RUN. Get back to Luka.

Unfortunately, the attacker seemed to sense Ahsoka's intentions. With a wave of her hand, she sent a stack of crates flying at her, and in the half-second that it took for Ahsoka to dodge them, she had set on her again with a vicious offensive.

Ahsoka simply _couldn't_ get by. All she could do was block, block, block, defend, defend, defend, all while knowing that time was running out for her. The only positive was that the attacker had stopped pushing her back, allowing the separation pain to stop increasing.

Then Ahsoka's pain suddenly decreased, and her heart soared as Luka padded into the room, much more warily this time. He approached the attacker quietly, and then he let out a tremendous roar- a pure distraction tactic.

It worked, sort of. The attacker started violently and instinctively hit Luka with a behind-the-back Force push, sending him into the wall, but when Ahsoka attempted to rally in the moment of confusion, the attacker threw her back with a ferocious Force-powered slash.

Even as Ahsoka flew threw the air, a hideous pain exploded in her head as the separation between her and Luka reached an unbearable point, and unable to do anything else, she landed hard on her back, too blinded by the pain to get up. The attacker advanced on her again, and Ahsoka just managed to raise her blade to block a blow, forcing the attacker into a saber-lock.

Then she heard a _thump_ , followed by the sound of something being dragged across the floor. And oddly, the pain was lessening in her head. What-?

Luka was being dragged across the floor to her, decreasing the separation distance. But she wasn't using the Force. It had to be her attacker. But why?

Ahsoka stared up at her opponent's face and wondered again who this was. Aside from the lack of daemon, the attacker's build was slightly different than Ventress, and the way this person fought was not using Ventress's style, but rather a rudimentary imitation of it; as if they'd learned it by watching holovids of Ventress in action, not by actually using it. And they knew about the pain of separation, and at least had enough conscience to stop it. But none of that answered the real question. Who _was_ this masked person? There were plenty of species in the galaxy that didn't have daemons, but almost none of them were humanoid...

That question was answered moments later, when Ahsoka saw something that her attacker didn't see- a very familiar doe peeking through the doorway with terrified eyes. Fidima.

She froze, not believing what she saw.

And where the daemon was, its person was nearby…

Ahsoka looked up at her attacker, struggling to work her vocal cords. "B-Barriss?" she said slowly, unwillingly.

Luka, much closer to Ahsoka but still lying prostrate on the floor, lifted his head, his eyes clouded with pain, His expression was full of confusion as he stared at the attacker.

Barriss- if this was her- looked back at her daemon while holding the deadlock. Ahsoka desperately wanted to believe that this wasn't Barriss. But the evidence was staring her in the face, and it was horrible. Barriss was the only other person who knew that she would be in this warehouse. She had _led_ her here.

A thousand conflicting emotions rose up in her, and a small part of her wanted to surrender, because there had to be a good reason for Barriss to do a thing like this - maybe she was trying to bring Ahsoka in?

The alternative was too horrifying to think about.

She knew there was a switch on Ventress's helmet that flipped up the visor. If she reached out with the Force, she could-

There it was. The helmet swung up.

It _was_ Barriss.

Barriss, with a tortured, miserable expression that screamed that something was terribly, terribly wrong- an expression of someone in far too deep, whose only option was to go deeper. In that moment, Ahsoka didn't see a murderous attacker. She saw the tired face on Geonosis that had said, _what happens to us now doesn't matter_. Gone was the mask of calm. In its place was a broken, desperate woman, and a frightened doe that could do nothing except watch. And Ahsoka knew for sure why Barriss was here.

"Barriss," she said again, quieter, but stronger. "Why?"

Barriss whispered only two choked words in reply. "No _._ Choice."

And then her expression rearranged itself with alarming quickness into something now wholly unrecognizable to Ahsoka- the calm, efficient face that was always there, as if Barriss was dealing with a complicated logic problem and nothing more. The mask slammed down, and Barriss broke the saber-lock, threw Ahsoka sideways, and launched another ferocious attack.

As the battle raged again between the two Jedi, what they didn't see was Fidima creeping over to Luka's fallen form. After a few moments, the doe began licking Luka's face in earnest, trying to stir the daemon.

Luka, still in his tiger form, twitched at the contact, and his eyes fluttered open. Upon seeing Fidima, he let out a plaintive moan. For one brief second, he shifted back in his stag form, looking at Fidima like she meant the world to him.

And then he remembered what was happening, and anger rushed into his eyes, his tiger form returned in seconds, and he reared up to strike down Fidima. But he stopped himself, readjusted and chose to back away, growling dangerously at Fidima.

"Don't hurt my person," he snarled. "Your person's already doing enough damage."

"I won't," Fidima said desperately. "I never wanted her to do this."

Luka stared at her with narrowed eyes. Before he could reply, however, a crash caught their attention, and Fidima turned to see her person throw Ahsoka into a pile of crates. The Togruta hit the crates hard and collapsed to the floor, not moving. Barriss walked over to Ahsoka, inspected the scene, and deactivated her lightsabers before walking back towards the two daemons.

A low growl rippled out of Luka's throat as Barriss neared, but he stalked away to Ahsoka's body without further hostilities.

Barriss approached her doe, making sure to give the tiger a wide berth. "Fidima," she said sharply. "I told you stay back. You could have gotten hurt."

Fidima shook her head. She had retained the compassion that her person had thrown aside in her desperate crusade to break the darkness that had fallen on the Republic, and even if her person had fallen so far, she knew that it was her duty to help her. She nuzzled her head against Barriss's leg as sirens sounded in the distance.

"Why did you have to do this?" she asked.

Barriss patted Fidima and removed the helmet that she'd stolen from Ventress.

"It's done," she groaned. "They won't find me now… Even if she tells them it was me, they'll never believe her—I can just pretend I was in the Temple the whole time—and maybe now they'll _do_ something. Maybe they'll see the pain they've caused. Maybe they'll see what's happened to them. Maybe they'll see-" she paused, tears gathering at the corners of her eyes- "the- the _darkness_ ," she gasped. "Maybe they'll understand, Fidima. That's why."

The sound of the sirens increased in volume, and Barriss straightened, composing herself again and clipping her lightsabers to her belt. "Let's go. My master is expecting me."

* * *

Ahsoka knew without a doubt that Barriss had been the masked woman in the warehouse, but she desperately wanted to believe that there was some virtuous motive for it right up until the moment when Barriss spat out a hideous confession inside the Republic High Court.

Back in Republic custody, she had been reluctant to tell Anakin about her suspicions of Barriss; instead she asked him to find Ventress, but a search for her came up empty-handed, leaving her with no other way to clear her name. With loathing, she told him everything about the fight with Barriss. After the revelation, he stood there for a few seconds, his eyes glittering with something hard and hateful; then Ashla had given a deep, rippling snarl and they'd left in a rush, wheeling for the door and stalking away.

One hour later, just as Ahsoka was being brought into the Republic High Court, her name was cleared when Anakin stormed into the court with Barriss- handcuffed, battered, bruised, and thoroughly defeated- in tow.

As Barriss had spoken, Fidima did something strange- she laid down on the ground and tucked herself into a ball, hiding her face from everyone present. Ahsoka didn't blame her.

Barriss didn't look Ahsoka in the eyes once during the speech, but when the Temple guards moved to take her away, she acted. She had to know one thing.

"Stop," she said, halting the Temple Guards.

Barriss looked up in shock at the sound of Ahsoka's voice.

"What was I to you?" Ahsoka asked her. A simple question without a simple answer. "Nothing more than a pawn?"

Barriss swallowed visibly. "I-" She stopped. "I never- I never meant to-" She stopped and turned away, choking back something that sounded like a sob.

But Fidima, hanging back, crept up to Ahsoka and looked up at her with pleading eyes.

"My person's in a dark place right now," she said hurriedly. "But please, if you knew what she went through, you'd understand. She never wanted you to be involved in this. I didn't want this to happen- I wanted her to stop. I'm sorry."

Daemons only talked directly to people other than their persons if it was _absolutely_ necessary, and Ahsoka immediately understood just how much Fidima wanted forgiveness for Barriss.

"Thank you, Fidima," Ahsoka said. "But I can't forgive Barriss right now. I'm sorry. I just need some time."

That seemed to satisfy Fidima, and she ran up to Barriss. One of the temple guards put a hand on Barriss's shoulder, pulling her forward again. Barriss gave one last defeated look back, and she was gone, through the doors of the court.

All that already felt like it was in the distant past as Ahsoka descended down the front steps of the Jedi Temple, walking away from the only life that she'd ever known. Luka, still limping but mostly recovered, was at her side again in his tiger form.

Images flashed through Ahsoka's mind- Christophsis, Geonosis, the medical frigate, Mandalore, Mortis, Wasskah, The Citadel, and the frantic last few days. Her life. Luka, always at her side, his form never settling. He had been many things- various dogs (most commonly a border terrier), a jungle cat, a rabbit, and a stag.

But now, with the tiger form becoming more and more common, and as she grew, Ahsoka was starting to think that maybe Luka wouldn't be changing as much in the future. Maybe he was getting close to settling. She still didn't know what he would settle as- in addition to the tiger, the border terrier and a jungle cat were still common iterations of her daemon.

But there was one thing that she knew for sure- the stag was gone forever.

 **A/N: So, the reasoning behind each of the daemon names:  
** **Ahsoka's is named "Luka" because it's literally "Akul" backwards.  
** **Barriss's is named "Fidima" because I derived it from "Fidi min," which means "trust me" in Esperanto (HA HA NOTHING IS WRONG HERE, THERE'S JUST A RIVER IN MY EYE)  
** **Anakin's is named Ashla, because COME ON, the literal light side of the Force? Totally works.  
** **Luminara's is named Lorin because, according to mylordshesacactus, it's a masculized name of one of Luminara's voice actors.  
** **Ventress's is named Sivivan because it means "survivor" in Haitian Creole.**


End file.
